Pool Party

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Gay ruling not his to make Now that Montgomery County Register of Wills D. Bruce Hanes has decided he has the power to determine the constitutionality of statutes enacted by the legislature and signed into law by the governor, who's next, the dogcatcher ("Montco defends stand on marriage," Aug. 20)? Has everybody forgotten his civics lessons? The quintessential feature of our federal and state governments is the separation of powers among the three branches of government. Since Marbury v. Madison , one of the most fundamental aspects of the separation of powers has been that the judicial branch determines the constitutionality of statutes, not some functionary of one of the commonwealth's 67 county governments.

AIN'T NO party like a Carl Dash party. From the late 1990s until 2004, Dash made a name for himself hosting dance parties and mixers at now-closed venues, such as the Five Spot, Transit, Palmers Social Club and Savannah's. He still does parties, but, over time, Dash's scope has broadened to include socially minded events such as the discussion series last summer at the now-closed Elena's Soul Lounge, in West Philly, on topics such as "What's the Matter With Philadelphia? A Black Professional Perspective" and "Black Philadelphia and the Republican Party.

A Montgomery County jury has awarded $10 million in damages to a 17-year- old Telford boy who broke his neck and was paralyzed in a 1988 swimming pool accident. The jury's award to Richard Allen Dresher Jr., a junior at Souderton Area High School, was described by courthouse officials as one of the largest in Montgomery County history. The jury also awarded his parents $461,344 to cover the costs of his care since the accident. "I was very pleased with the verdict; it made me cry," said his mother, Alice Dresher.

A blond woman in a bright orange jumpsuit grabs your wrist, asking you to look straight into her powder-blue eyes while she confesses just how deeply her feelings run for Frank Sinatra: "He teaches life," she says. "It's like he was the teacher and I was the student. " Alice Frascella of Philadelphia is one of many worshipers. "He's Babe Ruth when it comes to music," said Marty McCrossen, 37, of South Philadelphia. "He's probably the best thing to happen to popular music.

IT'S ONE OF those things that nag at you. You know, the last phone call or text that you got. Looking back, you wish you'd responded instead of letting the moment pass. In my case, it was one from radio legend E. Steven Collins, who texted at 5:44 a.m. Saturday about his pool party at his home in Laverock later that day. It sounded fun, but I was headed out of town and never got back to him. I wish I had, because the next I heard, Collins was gone. Dead at 58 of a massive heart attack that happened sometime Sunday night.

John Fox says he saw the teenager who killed the baby duck in Temple Place Park. "I chased him from here to the Heritage store," said Fox, whose Princeton Avenue home sits next to the park, and a quarter mile from the store. "I was catching up to him, too, then I said, 'What am I doing?' I don't know what I would have done if I caught him, I was so mad. "I was all for the park when people were opening it," said Fox. "My neighbor though, he saw it coming. " What Fox didn't see coming for the secluded park, two blocks off the sleepy main drag of Hessian Avenue, was a hangout for area teenagers with too much time on their hands.

Belmont Village Apartments, Bridgeport Borough, Montgomery County When Gerald and Barbara Shepard moved from Virginia to Pennsylvania because she had accepted a new job in King of Prussia, they looked for housing that was convenient to her work. Although their plan is to eventually move into a single-family house, they decided to set up housekeeping at the Belmont Village Apartments in Bridgeport. "I needed to be close to work, and we didn't know the area, so this became a good spot for us," Barbara Shepard said.

Search for a shirt Baseball players are more superstitious than 14th-century serfs. Take Minnesota's Justin Morneau, who apparently believes the American League MVP award he won last year was not the result of his physical skills or training routines, but rather the Todd Bertuzzi T-shirt he wore under his uniform. (Why anyone would wear a T-shirt honoring that NHL thug is grist for another day.) According to Tom Powers of the St. Paul Pioneer-Press, Morneau discarded the shirt after 2007 because it started to disintegrate.

That day 28 years ago, when Nancy Camise stood before God and the rest of the world and vowed to share everything with Vincent until death do them part, she knew she had married baseball. She knew that each year when pitchers and catchers would report for spring training, she'd be signing in, too. Every last week of February and all of March, Camise knew she and Vincent would be here watching batting practice. Both of them sitting in their reserved seats pulling for the fresh-faced newcomers still dizzy from their step up from the minors, and both of them sizing up the jaded, fading veterans.

Fire Chief Thomas McGowan of Collingdale Fire Company No. 2 has denied allegations that he was intoxicated when he responded to a fire Sept. 5 at Challenger Metal Products Corp. in Collingdale. The denials were made Tuesday night, when, at his request, he met with Borough Mayor Frank Kelly and Councilman Edward Zuccarini, chairman of the Public Safety Committee. At a Borough Council committee meeting Monday, Zuccarini said Assistant Fire Chief Joseph Locke Jr. of Fire Company No. 1 made the allegation in a letter to Zuccarini, Kelly and the board of directors of Fire Company No. 2. McGowan said Tuesday that Locke assumed he was intoxicated "for the simple reason that there was alcohol on my breath.